Between
the seventeenth and the early twentieth century, Tibetan Buddhism grew
from a regional system of governance to one at the heart of the Qing
Empire (1644-1911) ruling China and Inner Asia. A crucial factor in this
growth was the Qing rulers' adoption of Tibetan Buddhist medical
institutions and technologies, in a concerted imperial strategy to
consolidate administration of the frontiers by promoting medical
training, treatment, and ritual. Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges in
the Qing Empire practiced medical technologies from smallpox
innoculation to moxibustion and bonesetting, but became best known for
their production of "precious pills" (rin chen ril bu), or the
consecrated, edible products of ritual assemblies. In this talk, Dr. Van
Vleet will demonstrate how precious pills during the Qing period
developed as technologies of collecting and compounding expensive
ingredients from far-flung regions of the empire, materializing the
experience of a multi-ethnic Buddhist community as a consecrated "edible
network." Understanding precious pills as medical technologies
available for imperial adoption and redevelopment, she argues, reveals
how they served not only to engineer physical health and spiritual
growth, but also to engineer remedies for conflict and building
community.

For further information about the Colloquium, please contact the Program in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at hstm@umn.edu. For updates and changes check the web at http://www.hstm.umn.edu.